I’m on a campaign to wipe out “beige food.” How I envy Anthony Bourdain who gets to travel around the globe indulging in amazing culinary sensations. I might not, however, be able to do that job, simply because I’m a one drink wonder and he seems to have to consume massive quantities of alcohol frequently in conjunction with those amazing foods. Not sure how much of an audience I would draw as they’d be filming me slurring my words and stumbling around, or falling asleep in my plate of food.

Sweet Potato hash browns, ground chicken, avocado and eggs.

The person you never want to get behind in the grocery store checkout or at the meat counter is me. Buying fresh means everything needs to be weighed out. I hear people in line behind me sighing away as the clerk asks questions like “what are these” when she picks up my tomatillos or habanero peppers, and my order takes forever to ring up. I’m proud to admit that I am on a first name basis with the folks in the produce department and behind the meat counter, and at my local farmer’s markets.

I try not to judge people for what is in their shopping carts, but I can tell you that people do notice what you buy in the grocery store. I’ve had cashiers, and other people say wow, looks like you eat healthy, or now that is a TON of vegetables. I hope it doesn’t ever come across as bragging, but when someone notices, I generally can’t help but say, yes I used to weigh 215 pounds, but diet and exercise help!! And with minimal engagement, I’ve been known to share information about Paleo blogs/websites.

I love sharing what I’ve learned and hope by doing that I can inspire others to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Eating pretty food honestly makes a person feel better-not only because you are cooking fresh, but also because you are exploring the wonderful world of food and nutrition.

Life is too short to eat beige food or Anthony Bourdain would not have a net worth of 9 million dollars!!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 sweet potato, peeled and shredded

1/2 avocado, cubed

1 cup ground chicken, pre-cooked and spiced with your favourites

1-2 farm fresh eggs

1-2 T coconut oil

Heat coconut oil in a skillet over Med High heat. Add shredded sweet potato and cook until browned but not burned..kinda tricky because of sugar content of the potatoes.

Cook 1-2 eggs in 1 T ghee or butter.

Arrange with sweet potatoes on bottom, ring with avocado, and top with cooked chicken and eggs.

Balance..this day was all about getting myself back on track mentally. funny how just being in the gym, a day of fishing or being in the forest rights my soul..today I indulged in all three..well kinda.

Ironically, one of the exercises we did in warmup for CrossFit this morning involved balance..I kept wondering why I was struggling so much but finally realized I was doing the motion upside down-starting at the bottom and not the top. Once I figured that out, I had to laugh..I was upside down in many ways and there it was for everyone to see.

I’m house sitting for some friends, in their beautiful and super comfy home in Black Forest. I spent several hours hanging out with my friends Mary and Harold who also live in the forest. They were my neighbors before I had to move kicking and screaming to that four letter word..T O W N. gosh I miss the old cabin and my friends. I miss the sound of the wind in the trees and the taste of cold well water. I miss my life there.

After watching a beautiful sunset over Pikes Peak, I got to cooking myself dinner. I’m now on day 22 of Whole30..8 more to go and I’m already thinking I may do another 30..somebody slap me. Since I couldn’t get in a boat and go fishing to round out the day, I figured I would at least eat fish. Talipia Almondine to be specific. My friends house has a built in sound system and there is nothing like it..I think they should come standard with houses..they are every bit as useful as kitchen sinks.I cranked up the old Motown station and was jamming out..the dancing chef..and ask my kids I can NOT dance. I can however cook!! I can’t wait to try this with fresh walleye..that will have to wait until I head home to the Great North this summer.

This is what I created dancing around the kitchen:

TALIPIA ALMONDINE-Serves 2 PREP TIME 20 min

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 pieces of Talipia-can cut in half lengthwise if too big

1 fresh cut lemon

1/2 c Almond flour

2 sprigs Fresh rosemary

1/4 c sliced almonds

1 egg

3-4 T ghee or coconut oil

Spices:

1/2 t cajun seasoning

sea salt 2 grinds

Black pepper 2 grinds

DIRECTIONS:

Get yourself two pie plates (or flat dish with edge)

beat egg in one pie plate

Mix almond flour, and spices in the other

Slice lemon

Melt 2-3 T ghee or coconut oil in skillet over medium heat

Dredge fish pieces in beaten egg

transfer to dish with almond flour and spices and fully coat pieces

transfer fish to skillet, cooking 5-7 min on each side, flipping once, fish is done when it flakes apart with a fork

You know what I realized today?? After blogging for a few months, I have finally learned how to spell zucchini and broccoli without spell check rescuing my efforts..guess that means I must use those items frequently in my meals!

Almost everyone I know loves Spaghetti. It’s an easy meal to fix, you can add tons of veggies AND it’s probably one of the most commonly eaten leftovers. While other dinner leftovers are shoved to the back of the fridge where they become science experiments, spaghetti is frequently eaten for lunch the next day.

Several years back I was introduced to spaghetti squash. If you have yet to discover this little treasure of the squash world, then by all means TRY IT!. With traditional grain pasta off the Paleo menu, this squash makes a fantastic substitute for noodles.

The hardest part of preparing spaghetti squash is cutting it in half..the hull is incredibly tough. But hey, many of you are CrossFitters so grab that knife and put a little muscle power into in.

My sauce is 100% homemade. Most commercial sauces contain sugars and preservatives. Homemade sauce is simple to make and you can pick and choose which veggies and spices you prefer. You can even make a big batch and freeze half if you are feeling particularly industrious.

Cut squash in half longitudinally, scoop out seeds, lay squash down on sheet with the rounded hull pointing up, flat cut edge down against dish or cookie sheet.

Bake 30-45 minThe squash is cooked when your fork pierces easily through the flesh to the outside peel and separates easily into noodle-like strands. Pull the squash flesh from the peel to separate the flesh into strands. The strands wrap around the squash horizontally. Raking your fork in the same direction as the strands will produce the longest noodles.

Call me weird but I LOVE looking at well-displayed produce, whether it’s at the farmer’s market, the grocery store, or my fridge..ok it’s not that great in my fridge, but someday I will figure out a way to make it fabulous she said.

Though I’m a HUGE fan of snow and cold, it seems we’ve been inside a lot so far this winter. I still bundle up and get out to walk the dog, but I find myself day dreaming about gardening and Spring.

When my friend Jody had a greenhouse, we used to go in there and sit and drink our coffee and admire the produce growing madly on the vine. Jody has a green thumb that would make the Jolly Green Giant jealous. I walked my dogs by her home every morning when I lived in Black Forest and it was commonplace for her to come running out to the gate with fresh eggs, or a bag of spinach.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I tend to focus on making meals that are 30 min or less to prep/serve. Stir fry is a quick meal and a great way to get in your daily doses of veggies and lean meat. I typically use either chicken breasts or pork. Sometimes I grill the meat and stir fry my veggies. No wok, no worries..cast iron skillet works just as well for me.

This was a fairly simple 4 veggie stir fry to accompany my grilled chicken. If you love broccoli, but haven’t tried “baby broccoli” also called broccolini, then treat yourself to some soon. I really prefer it to broccoli . The secret to stir fry is to use minimal oil and get those veggies in and out quickly so they stay crisp. The true color of the vegetable should remain the same.

Although this stir fry only contains baby broccoli, onion, garlic and red peppers, there are tons of veggies you can add to stir fry. Bok choy is one of my favorites too. Others I commonly add to stir fry are carrots, celery, mushrooms, zucchini, chinese cabbage, shallots and water chestnuts. If you haven’t tried bitter melon, now’s the time. If you like that “soy sauce” flavor try adding coconut amines.

As far as meat..strips of pork, chicken, beef, venison, and elk all work for me.

I found this amazing recipe for Whole30 stuffed peppers with an enchilada type flavor and couldn’t have been more excited to try them. I’ve been a huge fan of Mexican food forever. My best friend in grade school was a Mexican girl named Leslie and their home was full of culinary sensations unknown to the Great White North where I had previously lived In that cold country, casseroles, soups and meat and potato dishes reigned supreme.

Leslie’s mom was soft spoken and deeply beautiful. It seemed to me she was always laughing and smiling which made her even more beautiful to me. Their house ran like clockwork and I envied the number of siblings Leslie had, because it seemed everyone always had a playmate. I secretly wished I belonged to a big family with lots of kids most of my childhood. And when I grew up I planned to have at least ten children of my own.

There was always a pot of spicy chile, a plate of fresh homemade tamales or a warm sopapillas dripping with honey waiting for us when we came home from school. Leslie was the oldest child in her family, and as such was responsible for wrangling the younger children, while her mom made dinner. Sometimes I helped Leslie by playing with the babies or folding laundry, but more often I drifted back into the kitchen, drawn by all those wonderful smells to help her mom.

I was put to work chopping, grating, sifting, stirring and sampling. I paid close attention to the ingredients and the prep so that when I went home that night I could tell my mom about all the wonderful new food I’d tried. On the weekends my mom would buy the ingredients and I would do my best to re-create the dishes I had learned to make from Leslie’s mom. Before long, casseroles lost their footing and we had regular burrito and taco nights added to the weekly menu. When my parents moved back up North, my mom took the recipes of Leslie’s mom with her and introduced many a Northerner to Mexican food.

These stuffed peppers are another easy to prepare meal that the whole family will eat without complaining. My daughter is not on Whole30 but said these were delicious..more proof that good food is good tasting food. Cauliflower rice is a my own recipe and is a great side dish for your peppers. I’m thinking a more Spanish rice with the cauliflower next time would be even more yummy.

PREP TIME:40 min, serves 2-4

INGREDIENTS FOR STUFFED PEPPERS:

1 LB Ground chicken, turkey or beef

4 red bell peppers-tops cut off, and seeded

1/2 yellow onion-peeled and diced

1 garlic clove-minced

1 can organic tomato sauce

2 T coconut oil or ghee

SPICES:

red pepper flake

ground chili powder

sea salt

garlic grind, garlic salt or garlic powder

onion powder or onion salt

ground cumin

mexican oregano

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400F

Brown meat in oil with onions and garlic added. Once meat is browned add in tomato sauce and spices and simmer on low heat until most of the moisture is absorbed. Scoop mixture into peppers, stuffing to the top. If you retained the pepper tops, you can put those on top of meat mixture. Cook for 20 min or until peppers are soft but not mushy. Serve with cauliflower rice and fresh homemade guacamole

Yesterday was the day I finally felt as if I owned my life again. I own a business on Etsy and do several craft shows each Fall so when the holiday season begins in September that takes over my life. Until January I typically succumb to a cold or two, function on minimal sleep buoyed by multiple doses of caffeine, and the energy I create around me is chaotic and out of balance. Even though I astonish myself with what I can accomplish, I am under considerable stress and never have time for the things which bring balance and joy to my life.

Call it an epiphany if you like, but I’ve finally had enough. With some great insight and coaching from family and friends, I’ve given considerable thought to how to break that stressful pattern. When September rolls around next year I will have an inventory ready for my holiday buyers. In October, I will have time to rake my leaves. In November I will enjoy the third birthday of my beautiful grandtwins, mail out my holiday orders, and have all my items tagged and inventoried for the craft shows. By December, my house will look, smell and feel like Christmas homes I envy in the magazines. I will build joyful things like going to the gym CONSISTENTLY, taking time for hiking thru the woods to enjoy the fall transitions, hanging out with friends, visiting family and decorating the house for the holidays into my routine. During holiDAZE past my mom used to tell us..Ok I’m at that part of the song where they say..fall on your knees. I now understand what she meant, but I no longer want to participate.

I’ve already started working on my inventory for next season and will be adding more specific ideas at our goal setting session at CrossFit Continuum this weekend..can’t wait. Planning always helps to sharpen my focus when I give into it, and with that added dash of the energy that belongs to a person with ADHD, I’ve got this.

So on January 6th, when I started my day off with a spectacular Colorado sunrise and early morning walk with my husky Denton, I felt alive again. Maybe it was the 20F temps, but I was awake to the possibilities of that day.

Since I entered the Whole30 challenge with my son/trainer/mentor Eric Allen and his wonderful girlfriend Krystle on 2 Jan, we’ve been sharing our recipes and menu plans. Krystle and Eric do weekly food prep. I enjoy cooking too, but usually have less time on weekends due to working on Etsy orders, so haven’t tried that yet. I will need to hit the Rubbermaid container aisle before I go full force force on that though. Speaking of Rubbermaid, can someone PLEASE tell me this “where do the lids go?”

I’ve been following a Paleo lifestyle since Feb of 2012, but had to revise and seek out new recipes for Whole30. In doing so I found a yummy looking Nacho recipe on Paleo Grubs. In my mind, recipes are guidelines, so when I didn’t have several of the ingredients on hand last night, I improvised. When you live in the Canadian wilderness, improvising is a honed skill. Every summer, the kids and I would go home and visit my parents who lived year round in the remote wilderness near Atikokan Ontario. Mom always had a stockpile of cans to get them through the winter in case they got snowed in and couldn’t get to town for supplies. In the summers, we would use fresh produce from the garden, fish from the lake and leftover canned supplies, so they could start anew the next season. During the year many of the labels would have fallen off and you would be left with “mystery cans”. Each meal involved using at least ONE mystery can which you somehow had to incorporate into your meal. It was then that I accepted that menus and recipes are mere guidelines ripe for alteration. You were always more thankful to get a can of crushed pineapple to add rather than sardines or even tuna.

The paleo grubs recipe called for ground beef, and I subbed in chicken. I also omitted the canned tomatoes since I was using chicken rather than beef, and used lemon rather than lime juice in my homemade guac. I didn’t have a canned mystery food to add, so this was my dinner plated out. I thought my end creation resembled a tostado more than nachos hence the name change.

I can honestly say this recipe was one of the BEST things I have ever made while cooking Paleo for almost 3 years..insanely good. Short prep time, super healthy, and lots of veggies! Thanks Paleo Grubs!!

SERVES 2, Prep time: 20 min

INGREDIENTS:

2 chicken breast-cubed

1 t cayenne powder or hot pepper spice mix

4 T coconut or ghee

2 fresh roma tomatoes-diced

3 green onions-diced

1 small red bell pepper-diced

1 small yellow bell pepper-diced

1/4 jalapeno diced

1-2 sweet potato, peeled and sliced to be super thin

1 c chopped Romaine lettuce or spinach(with stems removed)

1 fresh tomatillo-diced

2 scoops fresh homemade guacamole-see recipe below

GUACAMOLE RECIPE:

1 fresh avocado, mashed

1 lime or lemon, juiced

2 grinds sea salt

1 grind garlic/pepper mix or 1/4 t garlic salt

DIRECTIONS:

Cook cubed chicken in 2 T ghee, or coconut oil until done

Fry sweet potato slices in 2 T ghee or coconut oil until crispy but not black, turning once or twice..remove from oil and drain excess oils

Layer your plate starting with a base of sweet potato slices, followed by chicken, and fresh veggies. Top with 1-2 scoops of guacamole. Serve immediately!!

Yesterday when I got to work the temperature in my lab was 99F. In my office it was 88F. Despite the snow and 30 degree temperatures outside, I was lulled into a tropical mood. In reality I was probably heat-stroked into believing I was in the tropics.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t function at temperatures above 70. As a child my Dad sometimes called me Nunuq which is Inuit for polar bear because I preferred the great outdoors and could rarely be coaxed indoors to play indoors even during harsh Minnesota winters. I was the kid who loved diving into snowbanks, accompanied by my faithful but not overly intelligent dog, Penny. Penny was a German Shorthair Pointer that my Dad hoped to groom into a fine hunting dog as she matured. Neither happened. Somehow Penny never lived up to the potential of her genetic bloodlines as promised by the breeder. Sadly, she was bred to retrieve the neighborhood kids’ mittens, shoes, and much to my Mother’s horror an entire clothesline of the neighbors clean laundry. Because Penny was notorious for ripping mittens off kids’ hands during play, I frequently arrived home looking like one of the five little kittens missing at least one of my mittens. My mom, who had no tolerance for ill behaved dogs or missing mittens devised what she termed the “idiot string” to keep my mittens from being yanked off by Penny. The idiot string was a long string, made with yarn that matched my mittens, of course. The left handed mitten was securely attached to one end and the right to the other. Before sending me outdoors to play, my mom would carefully thread one mittened end of the idiot string through the arms of my jacket and out the opposite arm hole. I always felt like a living scarecrow of sorts as my limbs were stuffed into my jacket and my mittens came alive on my hands. Sadly though Mom was no match for Penny who quickly converted the game of mitten snatch into mitten tug of war. The problem was that the alternate mitten was being tugged by the idiot string and that would cause my arm to jerk around like the limbs of a puppet. Like it or not, Penny WAS my best playmate.

With Minnesota tucked deeply into my childhood memories, 8 hours of 90F heat and pineapple on sale for .99 each, I embraced the tropics to create this Whole30 friendly meal. I’m calling it Hawaiian skillet kabobs because it has the flavor of kabobs made in a cast iron skillet. I love the taste of kabobs with the sweet and sour flavors melding together and this is a quick recipe that mimics that flavor. Great for nights when you are running short on time as this one only takes 20 min from stove to table. Please enjoy and share my recipes and blog.

Gosh, where did the time go?? After mid November I feel like I was abducted for alien research. Not sure what their studies concluded because I don’t see the scientific merit of knowing such mundane things as how many pillows one sleep deprived person can make between 0100 and 0530, the number of jars of jam one human can crank out in one week, if a person can make a quilt in less than 24 hours, the number of Colorado beanies a person can make in one month, how many trips to Houston a grandmother will make in one month, how many respiratory infections one person can fight off in 45 days, and how successful will a person be with less than four hours to complete their Christmas shopping..but their data has been collected, and I’ve been returned to my formal “normal”.

On a more serious note, I fell off the workout wagon and it’s time to ramp back up with clean eating and CrossFit. I need to train myself to make my dedication to the goals I’ve set for a healthy fit 2015 my FIRST and foremost priority.. and there it is in writing.

So when Eric, my son, and his girlfriend Krystle invited me to participate with them on a Whole30 challenge starting on 2 Jan, 2015 I accepted. I honestly can’t understand why my previous attempts to do Whole30 failed..after all it’s not radically different than the strict Paleo lifestyle I followed completely thru two Lurong Challenges and a nine month introductory lifestyle change. All I know is that THIS time I will succeed in finishing.

One element that I know I neglected somewhat before was variation in my diet. That said I’ve set my goal to create at least one wonderful new Whole30 recipe per day. And a second key to success involves planning. Luckily, Krystle has developed a great menu for them which I always have the option to follow as well. One of the interesting things I’ve noted since posting pics of the foods I’ve created is that even my non-Paleo, non-CrossFit friends have asked for the recipe. I’m always encouraged by their comments and I truly hope that as I share what I am learning that I will help someone else to improve his or her health.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to this recipe by my girlfriend Heather after we spent the day at her home working on our UFO’s (unfinished objects..you know..those projects you stuff in a bag or a bin and hope to finish one day). She was kind enough to alter a few ingredients to make it Whole30 friendly for me too! To me recipes are simply guidelines and I honestly never 100% completely follow a recipe, other than when baking. Feel free to add your own creative culinary flair to this recipe and share your results with us. I think it would be equally fabulous with either shrimp or curry powder added.